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Milwaukee's Carmen charter school network to take over struggling Stellar Collegiate

Carmen Schools of Science and Technology has agreed to take over the charter contract of Stellar Collegiate. The deal allows Stellar, which has struggled financially, to tap into Carmen's back-office expertise, and gives Carmen its first elementary school.(Photo: Stellar Collegiate Charter School)

Carmen Schools of Science and Technology has agreed to take over operation of the 3-year-old Stellar Collegiate Charter School, a first foray into the elementary arena for the growing charter school network.

The move brings to five the number of schools that will be run by Carmen, which opened its flagship south side high school in 2007 and its first free-standing middle school this year.

The deal allows Stellar, which has struggled with enrollment and finances, to tap into the back-office expertise of the larger, more stable network. And it creates the network's first elementary feeder for its middle and high school programs.

"I've always had a lot of respect for Carmen," McGonegle said. "I'm excited to not be an island anymore and be connected to an organization that is doing great things."

Carmen founder and CEO Patricia Hoben called McGonegle a "strong instructional leader" and said she brings with her the elementary education expertise Carmen needs to expand in those grades.

"That fits into our vision for a strong K-12 pathway in the neighborhood — something our families have been asking for for years," she said.

Carmen is chartered by Milwaukee Public Schools and Stellar by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Carmen is taking over Stellar's contract on July 1, but it will remain under UWM. Stellar's nonprofit board will dissolve.

The school is dropping "Collegiate" from its name to become Stellar Elementary.

Stellar, in the former St. Patrick's parish school at 1115 S. 7th St., opened in 2016 and serves about 150 students in 4K through third grade. It plans to add two additional grades over the next two years. The school has earned a "satisfactory progress" on its state report cards.

Carmen currently serves about 1,700 students in four schools: two high schools and a middle school on Milwaukee's south side, and a combined middle-high school on the northwest side. It has plans to grow to about 2,200 students in those buildings over the next two years.

Its original Carmen South High School, which serves a largely Hispanic population, has drawn national attention, with U.S. News and World Report ranking it as the best public school in Wisconsin in 2017. But the network has struggled to replicate that success with its primarily African-American students on the northwest side.

It has also drawn criticism from the Milwaukee teachers union and some parents who see its locations in two MPS buildings — Carmen South shares space with ALBA, an MPS-run charter school and Carmen Southeast with Pulaski High — as first steps in a potential takeover of those schools.

Hoben says she is not interested in a takeover, but in collaborating in ways that allow the MPS schools to also benefit.